Trump’s bipartisan pitch long gone; now he’s talking treason

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s call in the State of the Union address last week for a new era of bipartisan cooperation seems like a distant memory.

Now, he’s calling Democrats “un-American” and perhaps “treasonous” for not clapping during that address — part of a larger trend of recent insults and slights as the president turns his ire on the opposition party for failing to go along with his plans.

His treason quip on Monday triggered an uproar among Democrats. The White House quickly responded that the president was joking, although Trump hasn’t said — or tweeted — as much.

Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a double amputee veteran of the Iraq War, tweeted her umbrage, working in a reminder that Trump had deferments during the Vietnam War for bone spurs.

“We don’t live in a dictatorship or a monarchy,” she wrote. “I swore an oath_in the military and in the Senate_to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, not to mindlessly cater to the whims of Cadet Bone Spurs and clap when he demands I clap.”

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted that, “Every American should be alarmed by how @realDonaldTrump is working to make loyalty to him synonymous with loyalty to our country. That is not how democracy works.”

Some Republicans, too, said Trump had gone too far.

“You don’t have to always agree with those on the other side of the aisle, but all members of Congress love their country, and none are treasonous,” wrote Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, who also took to the Senate floor Tuesday to blast the president’s comments.

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley insisted the president had made the comment in jest.

“It was tongue in cheek. The president was obviously joking. But what’s serious is it seems as though the Democrats put their personal hatred for this president over their desires to see this country succeed,” he said.

Flake said he didn’t buy it: “I have seen the president’s most ardent defenders use the now-weary argument that the president’s comments were meant as a joke, just sarcasm, only tongue in cheek. But treason is not a punchline, Mr. President,” he said.

Trump made his treason remark during an appearance at an Ohio manufacturing plant, where he said Republicans went “totally crazy, wild, they loved everything” about his State of the Union address. He described Democrats as refusing to applaud even positive news, and said they’d prefer to see him do badly than the country do well.

Trump also accused the party of not wanting to secure the nation’s borders.

“They don’t care about the security of our country,” he said. “They don’t care about MS-13 killers pouring into our country.” That was a reference to a violent street gang.

It was a significant departure from the night a week earlier when Trump talked of “extending an open hand to work with members of both parties — Democrats and Republicans — to protect our citizens of every background, color, religion and creed,” all the while pushing a hardline immigration plan that Democrats have rejected as a nonstarter.

Trump’s plan would provide a path to citizenship for up to 1.8 million young

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A preferred scenario amendment to allow a nearly 7-acre development on Peques Street, off of Sessom, went before the Planning and Zoning Commission Tuesday night.

Doucet and Associates requested a zoning change for the 6.73 acres from Single Family (SF-6), which is meant to allow single-family detached houses with minimum lot sizes of 6,000 square feet, to T5 SmartCode, which accommodates higher density mixed-use developments including retail, offices, rowhouses and apartments.

According to the packet from Austin-based student housing developer Core Spaces, the highintensity development would be a five-story building with 703 beds and hundreds of parking spaces.

According to the city, it would be the only high-intensity development in the area. Commissioners expressed concern with the already dense traffic along Sessom and the potential environmental effects of the project – noting that construction would involve a lot of grading and disruption to the hillside and laying more concrete could cause more runoff from that development.

Yes, it would add more housing to the area.

No, the area presents too many potential traffic, environmental and neighborhood issues.